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Ken Livingstone speaks from the heart

It’s a dead giveaway to the reliance you can place on anything Livingstone says when he invokes his own humility. You can take the rest of what he says on a par with that.

So this is what’s he’s cobbled together to try and save a few Jewish votes and particularly those of long term Jewish activists, after London’s most dedicated Labour activists have been busting a gut save the situation for the past three weeks.

Well, some people will believe it because they want to. And of course he doesn’t address the most devastating criticisms of all, about his conflation of Jews=Israel=zionism, all pejoratively. Instead, he expects us to take his willingness to put money into lighting Chanukah candles on Trafalgar Square, run a completely unsought by the community event like Simcha in the Square and be willing to turn up for some photo ops at Limmud as making what he had to say when he didn’t think he’d be reported all OK.

Livingstone contrite? Yeah, right. The language of his new JC piece reeks of mealy mouthedness and careful political side-stepping and contortions, to coin a word, electioneering underpressure.